Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Nov 2 2019 - Isaiah 64 – Rending the heavens

In the past couple of chapters we have seen that the Messiah has appointed his people as watchmen who look for, and pray for the completion of God's saving purposes, giving God no rest from their prayers that his kingdom may come and that his people become the praise of all the earth. Such longings and heartfelt prayer are expressed now in chapter 64:

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
    and cause the nations to quake before you! (Isaiah 64:1-2)

This plea for God to act for the salvation of his people is grounded in what God had previously done for them. He did awesome things when he rescued his people from Egypt and came down to meet with them at Mount Sinai – the mountains trembled before him (v. 3). No one has seen or heard of any other god doing the kinds of things that God has done for his people. The God of Israel is without any rivals (v. 4). Isaiah admits that God's people have rebelled against him and have forgotten God's commandments – "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (v. 6). He cannot plead that the people of God are deserving of God's salvation. Rather he pleads God's own character and promises:

Yet you, LORD, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD;
    do not remember our sins for ever.
Oh, look upon us we pray,
    for we are all your people. (vv. 8-9)

So he pleads that God not will hold back his mercy but will come to the aid of his people (v. 12).

And this is what our great and holy God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has looked upon us in all our sin and need – in our lost condition – and has taken pity on us. He has rent the heavens and come down. God the Son left his throne in glory and came to be born in the filth and squalor of an animal shed. He came to lift us from the filth and squalor of our sins – our filthy rags righteousness – to clothe us in the splendid righteousness of a Son of God. Having died for us he was raised for us and has returned to glory for us.

But that is not the end of the story. As the heavens were rent and God the Spirit came down upon the Lord Jesus at his baptism, so God has rent the heavens for us and sent us his Spirit to work in our lives and conform us to the image of his Son. His purpose is to make his people the praise of all the earth. And the Spirit, sent from heaven, is still at work convicting the world of sin and of righteousness and of the reality of the judgment to come. He is still at work drawing men and women to Christ that they might find salvation in him. He is still empowering his people to act as witnesses to God's great work of salvation in Christ that they might turn to him.

And one day God will rend the heavens again at Christ's return when all things shall be transformed and made new and the whole of creation shall be made "the home of righteousness" as it is filled with the presence and glory of God.

Lord, we pray that you would rend the heavens and come down. Come down O Spirit in revival power, energising your people and turning many more to Christ. Come O Christ in power and in might to transform this sorry world so that we, and all creation, may reflect your resurrection glory. 

6go6ckt5b8|00005AC6389D|Blog|Body|C1800939-D85B-4637-9A97-D16D7F5B294E

Nov 2 2020 - John 4:7-42 – The fountain of living water

John 4 records a remarkable conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman who had come to draw water from the well where Jesus was sitting. Jesus initiates a conversation with the woman by asking her to give him a drink of water. The woman recognises that Jesus is a Jew, either from his accent or from his clothing, and is astonished that he should speak to her. Jews would not normally strike up conversations with Samaritans; a lone man would not normally strike up a conversation with a lone woman – particularly with a woman who came alone to a well in the heat of the day. Jesus broke all conventions to speak with this woman.

Jesus turns the initial conversation about water into an enigmatic declaration concerning himself; “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (4:10). Jesus’ words seem designed to confuse; if he had water to give this woman, why did he ask for water from her? It’s little wonder that she responds with a sarcastic comment, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jacob was Israel, the father of the nation and common ancestor of both Jew and Samaritan. Who could be greater than Israel?

Jesus' answer makes it clear that he is indeed greater than Israel. Through the life that he gives, he becomes the source and head of a vast number of people from every nation under heaven. He is the source not of a new nation but of a new creation. He is the one who will break down every barrier between peoples for the day is dawning when the good news concerning Jesus will be preached in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and then in the whole world. There is no-one greater than Jesus; He is Christ the Lord.

Jesus has come to satisfy the universal thirst found in the human spirit; the thirst for authenticity, for wholeness, for forgiveness and cleansing, for acceptance and belonging, for contentment, for an end to the restless search for peace and satisfaction. Jesus says that those who come to him will never thirst again. He satisfies the thirsty soul with the river of life that flows into them – his living presence with us by his Spirit (cf. John 7:37-39).

When the disciples return with food for Jesus he tells them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about" (4:32). Jesus then goes on to explain, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together... I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour" (4:34-38).

There is work that is more important than food or drink; it is the work of bringing people back to God through a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the reason Jesus was sent into the world. It was the work that preoccupied him – preoccupied him for a time with the Samaritan woman. It is a work that remains unfinished. It is a work that is to preoccupy us.

Lord Jesus, open my eyes to the work you have for me today. Give me a heart for people and a readiness to break down barriers created by prejudice and fear. Give me the wisdom to know how to enter into conversations that will cause people to abandon their water jars and drink of the river of living water that can satisfy the thirsty soul.

6go6ckt5b8|00005AC6389D|Blog|Body|A56DF827-ABCE-4785-867E-CA70A0BAA1C5

Peter Misselbrook